Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 23, 1992 TAG: 9202230080
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bill Brill
DATELINE: KANSAS CITY, MO. LENGTH: Medium
COLLEGE FOTOBALL COACHES SHOULD GET WITH THE TIMES
"Personally, I think football coaches have had their head in the sand."Did I say that? Nope, but I don't disagree.
The source of that statement last week during the NCAA's College Football Forum was Al Luginbill, who happens to be the coach at San Diego State.
Luginbill looks like a professor. What he pointed out in a scholarly way is that many of his peers have a problem: They can't deal with reality.
People like R.C. Slocum of Texas A&M and Alabama's Gene Stallings need to get with it. Unhappily, most of the nation's coaches probably agree with Slocum, who said he is "totally against" college players testing NFL waters.
What Slocum was referring to was the distinct possibility that the NCAA will pass legislation next January that will permit football players to enter the NFL draft, and, if they don't like how it turns out, return to school.
If I thought this was proposed out of compassion for the players, it wouldn't be so bad. And Stallings, an 18-year pro coach, said he believes that underclassmen are not ready to handle the rigors of the NFL.
The real problem is these coaches are upset with the possibility of "testing the waters" because it will be harmful to their football programs.
They are especially upset that Tommy Maddox, 20, a redshirt sophomore quarterback at UCLA, is entering the draft and forfeiting his eligibility with the Bruins. The year before, Southern Cal's Todd Marinovich did the same thing and was picked in the first round by the Los Angeles Raiders.
"We're not in the business of preparing our players for the pros," Stallings said, although he was a one-time, unsuccessful, head coach at Phoenix.
Slocum even suggested the NFL somehow should pay UCLA for its loss of Maddox, considering the amount of money he said the school had invested in him.
For starters, this business of players leaving school early for the NFL isn't killing college football. This year, 34 have declared for the April draft. Of that group, seven were from schools below Division I.
That means each of the 106 Division I programs loses approximately one-fourth of a player, which is about average (67 the past two years).
The coaches will point out that two years ago, 38 players turned pro and only 18 were drafted. What they don't mention is there was no arm-twisting. The players left because they wanted to leave, and, in some instances, were in serious academic difficulty.
Basketball has had its players leave early for years. Dean Smith somehow has managed to keep his North Carolina program from floundering even though James Worthy, Michael Jordan and J.R. Reid left early.
Georgia Tech's Bobby Cremins bade farewell to Dennis Scott and Kenny Anderson without tears. And surely Steve Fisher doesn't expect to keep all of Michigan's Fab Five freshmen for four years.
But football coaches, for whom one player leaving isn't nearly as disastrous, somehow want the right to keep those guys around for five years. (In case you have forgotten, almost all Division I freshmen are redshirted.)
It is true that the theory of testing the waters, which surely is the moral thing to do, could be disruptive. But, if it happens, adjustments could be made.
However, Slocum is being absurd if he thinks "we'd have 20 juniors and five sophomores testing the waters every year."
Players may think they eventually will make it in the pros, but only a few will be so cocky as to believe they can make the grade as teen-agers.
There is no thought here to make the NFL out as the good guys. The pros do nothing for the college game. Nothing. They have a tremendous farm system, free of charge, right down to borrowing the VCRs when they visit campus to look at videotape.
But there also is no legitimate reason a player should be forced to stay in school if he can learn, accurately by means of the draft, that he can become an instant millionaire.
The NCAA, often accused of ignoring the rights of athletes as if they were chattel, is being fair if it permits the players to maintain their eligibility if they don't sign with agents.
That's called adjusting to the times. Football coaches must learn to do that. Otherwise, as Luginbill suggests, they may turn into ostriches.